Cauliflower Rice is the low carb alternative to rice, with 77% less calories and 89% less carbs. When made well, you will be astonished how delicious it is served with anything and everything you usually serve with rice!
Cook it in the microwave, oven or stove. Use the method that best works for you!
Cauliflower Rice
Cauliflower masquerading as rice.
Is it as good as rice? No. And anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying, or doesn’t know what tasty food is.😂
But is it a very good healthy substitute for rice that can be made to be delicious in its own right?
YES IT IS!
So what does it taste like? It tastes MILDLY like cauliflower. It’s not as cauliflowery as plain steamed florets because the cauliflower flavour is tempered when grated into little rice size pieces – which is what you want.
And because cauliflower has a neutral flavour, it’s easily disguised when doused with a tasty sauce – like this Honey Garlic Chicken with Cucumber Salad on the side. When you get stuck into it, you may well forget it’s not rice!
How to make Cauliflower Rice
The best and fastest way is to push cauliflower florets through the feeding tube into a food processor fitted with the grating disc.
This blitzes up the cauliflower into rice shaped bits and will make your cauliflower rice eating experience as similar as possible to rice.
Don’t have a grating disc attachment?
The grating disc works better than the default “S” curve blade that food processors come with to evenly grate all the cauliflower into rice shaped pieces.
While you can just use the default “S” curve blade, you’ll find that some ends up more like couscous while some is rice size. Or some are lentil size and some are rice size. You get the gist. 🙂 “S” blade works pretty well, but the grating disc works better.
No food processor?
No worries! Just use your everyday standard grater. This actually works better than using the “S” blade of a food processor to make rice-size pieces, but it’s messier. You will get little bits of cauliflower everywhere – on the counter, and probably on the floor!
Today I’m going to show you how to cook plain cauliflower rice, intended to be served like white rice with saucy things like stir fries and curries. In the coming weeks, I’ll also share some recipes made by cooking cauliflower rice which are knock-your-socks-off delicious!
How to cook Cauliflower Rice
Choose the method that fits in best with your way of cooking:
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Microwave steam (fastest) – place in container with lid (no water), microwave on high 4 minutes
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Oven steam – place in baking dish, cover with lid or foil, bake 20 minutes at 200°C/390°F
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Oven bake (great nutty flavour) – toss with a bit of oil, bake 15 minutes at 200°C/390°F.
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Stove – sauté with a little oil for around 4 minutes
How to serve Cauliflower Rice
Serve with anything that you usually serve with rice, and use it in place of rice in things like rice salads! Here are some suggestions.
1. Stir Fries
Perfect to soak up tasty Stir Fry sauces!
2. Curries
Ideal for dousing with rich, flavour loaded Curry sauces….
3. Anything saucy
Anything saucey that you like served with rice!
4. Rice and Couscous Salads
Use in place of Couscous or Rice in salads, such as these:
How to cook with cauliflower rice
Cooking with cauliflower rice is not always a straight substitution as rice needs 1.5 to 2 cups of liquid for every cup of dried rice, whereas cauliflower rice doesn’t require liquid to cook it. It also cooks in about 1/3 of the time as white rice.
However, you can use the sauce and non liquid flavourings in my rice side dish recipes as a guide to dress up your cauliflower rice.
And it’s particularly good for fried rice. You can use any of my fried rice recipes and do a direct swap substituting cooked rice with raw cauliflower rice.
Fried Rice Recipes
Or you could just use my Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe!
Even if you’re a cynic (and I was for a very long time), I really hope you give this a go at least once. Think of all the calories you’re saving – and what you can use all those calorie credits for! 😂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower (or 500g/1lb store bought prepared cauliflower rice, Note 1)
Instructions
- Cut / break cauliflower into florets (including stems) that will fit into the feeding tube of food processor.
- Fit food processor with grating disc. Place lid on, then push the florets into the feeding tube with the motor running on low.
- Cauliflower will blitz into rice shaped bits! Can use raw but I prefer cooking it - use a method below.
Other grating methods:
- Food processor standard "S" blade - fill halfway with florets, pulse 4 to 5 times until largest bits are the size of cooked rice (half will be couscous size, half rice sized). Repeat as needed.
- Hand grating - cut whole cauliflower into quarters, then grate by hand.
Cooking Method options (6 - 8 cups rice):
- Only cook cauliflower rice until it is just cooked - don't let it go soft and mushy (it gets watery).
- Roasting - drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Toss, spread on tray, bake at 200°C/390°F for 15 minutes, tossing halfway through cook time.
- Microwave - place in container with lid with vent open. Microwave 4 to 5 minutes on high until tender crisp. Don't overcook too soggy.
- Oven steam - place in covered baking dish, bake 200°C/390°F for 20 minutes.
- Stove - Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Optional: Cook 2 minced garlic cloves 20 sec until golden. Add rice, cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so, for 5 minutes until just cooked.
Serving:
- Serve in place of rice with stir fries, curries, anything saucy that you like serving with rice.
- Use in place of rice or grains in salads and fried rice.
Recipe Notes:
- Raw - airtight container for 5 days in the fridge, or freeze
- Cooked - 4 days in the fridge (I find it gets a bit soggy after this)
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
100% complete and utter zero interest in today’s recipe 😂
Your comment in the post “ Even if you’re a cynic (and I was for a very long time), I really hope you give this a go at least once. Think of all the calories you’re saving – and what you can use all those calorie credits for! 😂 – Nagi x”
Cracked me up !!!!! Hahaha
Thanks for the recipe, as always !
I tried making cauliflower rice tonight and, despite how much I love so many of your recipes, I was skeptical after my Zoodles disaster of a few years ago. (“They taste just like pasta!”, some said. HA! They taste NOTHING like pasta!) Anyway, the riced cauliflower was a TOTAL SUCCESS!! I cooked sesame chicken tonight (must admit I was in a hurry, so I used a pouch of cooking sauce with 4 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed) and added a lot of veggies to the pan too (as I always do). I cooked only 1 small portion of the riced cauliflower just in case … and it was great! No, it doesn’t taste like rice, but it’s no more bland than my typical rice, which I use to soak up the SAUCE, as you wrote on this page. And the riced cauliflower soaked up the sauce beautifully, AND the texture is very similar to rice, so it was a totally satisfying and delicious meal (and I cooked MORE of the riced cauliflower when I finished eating and put it in the 3 leftover sesame chicken portions that I will freeze). THANK YOU for helping me stay on a healthy eating plan! I LOVE your site and look forward to buying your cookbook too!
Hi Nagi I’m keen to try it but was wondering can it freeze well once I cook it? Thanks
Yes Helen it freezes well! N x
Excellent! We ate it with salmon in lime coconut sauce. Not sure it will stop me reaching for the jar of rice every time but the carb saving alone certainly makes it very attractive. Many thanks for all your fabulous recipes 😋
If I’m going to trust anyone it’s going to be you on this one. I’m half Asian and it almost tears me up at the thought of no rice. How did our peeps ever survive eating the dreaded carbs if they’re so horrible..but I’m willing to at least give this a real try. I’m gonna pair it up w your cashew chicken recipe you posted today.
Hi Macy, I’m all for carbs, but sometimes it’s great having an alternate options for various reasons (this is perfect for Diabetics too!) – N x
Made this cauliflower rice tonight. With the flavoring of whatever you serve it with you really can’t tell its not regular rice.
Yes, isn’t it great for a low carb option Kim – and I’m all for added veg in my meal! N x
I’ve been making cauliflower rice for a few years now, but I never thought of roasting it, always opting to nuke or sauté it What a revelation! There were some browned crispy bits on top (yum!) and as you said, roasting imparted some nuttiness to the dish. Thanks Nagi!
Delush! Thanks for the recipe. I am very Asian. I am not a cook. I would like to learn how to cook Asian
cuisine in my old age.
Dear Nagi I enjoy making recipes form your website. You are very inspiring.
I’d love a cauliflower rice sub for your fabulous lemony, oreganoy, chickeny greek baked rice – it’s my favourite hence I eat way too much of it…
Would you use these same cooking methods with frozen cauliflower rice?
Yes Susan – check the recipe notes 🙂 N x
Oh boy! I am a total convert to the mighty cauliflower rice. So easy and so delicious. Next I will be making all the rice recipes I can find with cauliflower as a sub. Yummy yummy
I’m so glad you love it!!
I like adding some of the cauliflower leave and some mint leaves in the processor and then microwaving the lot. I process it with the knife attachment of a stick mixer.
Sounds like a great idea!
Hi Nagi! I could not believe my eyes when I saw this cauliflower rice posted today. I recall the first time I saw your web site and you were definitely against cauliflower anything, except for its natural reason for being perhaps. 😉Anyway that’s what I remember. I could be wrong. Just wanted to say, I’ve made cauliflower fried “rice”, mashed cauliflower (still not as good as actual potato), and one of my faves a cilantro lime cauliflower rice. I went this route when doing a Whole30 round and reducing carbs sure can help this girl’s waistline. 😆. Just wanted to welcome you to the cauliflower craze! 😘
Desperate times called for desperate measures! 😂 Truthfully, I’m not a fan of cauliflower things like pizza and bread, where the end result is seriously so lacking compared to the real thing. But if you look at cauliflower rice as an alternative to real rice, and make it so it actually tastes nice, then it’s still very good in its own right. Also like Cauliflower Mash. Posh restaurants serve cauliflower puree, it’s a totally done thing! It’s not the same or as good as mash – but still tasty! N xx
Haha! Cauliflower bread does not sound good. And I have had a cauliflower crust pizza…it was alright but I rather just have a salad. 😄 Well no matter what the ingredients you make it all taste yummy!
I’ve always been somewhat skeptical about cauliflower rice – and cauliflower puree as well, to be honest. I do love a good cauliflower cheese – time to move out of my comfort zone and try both!! Plus if it’s a Nagi recipe, it’s guaranteed to be epic!!
x